On 2002-06-05 12:47, jever98 wrote:
Thanks for correcting me, I don't want to give people a false sense of security.
I was out on the Achensee last THursday, and was also quite surprised about the wind shifts and gusts. I would not have imagined that a relatively more open lake like yours would have such adverse conditions - is there anything in the west that could cause it?
We just have to live with these conditions, unfortunately we're not as lucky as the guys living on the coast
Cheers
Nico
The Size of the lake doesn't matter, its the inland location that causes the problems - on the sea you have a constant pressure difference between (the mostly) colder air above the sea and warmer air above land and this creates a more steady flow of air (well within certain limits of windspeed of coarse).
Our Westerly winds travel along or over the alps and "fall" down into the Flatlands east of vienna, then there is another small "mountain" range (mostly only 200m high) called the "leithagebirge" wich causes further turbulences because the lake is right behind it. On the other Hand Winds from the N or NW travel a relatively wide distance without major obstructions, so they are a little bit more consistent.
Generally Wind form westerly directions (dead onshore on the rdable side of the lake) with more than 6bf are barely rideable and only expert kiters that take all possible precautionary measures should go out (but still with a relatively high risk of getting lofted or dragged)
Mountain lakes like Achensee are sometimes (not always) even harder to ride due to thermic fallwinds and sudden gusts caused by local low/high pressure cells (forming e.g. on cold shady rockwalls opposed by sunbaked parts of a valley).
To me it is always amazing how easy highwind kiting in open ocean conditions is compared to highwind inland lake kiting.
Paul